


Puella Magi Faust Magica ~ The Angel and the Brocken Spectre

by magicalfeyfenny



Category: Faust - Fandom, Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story, Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Gen, NaNoWriMo 2019, Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-01-24 19:04:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 10,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21343198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicalfeyfenny/pseuds/magicalfeyfenny
Summary: so basically i got rly back into madoka magica recently through the NA release of magia record, and one thing that always stuck out to me as an amusing crossover (even if it's already been done before) was if goethe's faust was a real event in the madoka magica universe, and how to go about telling itthen i started writing something completely different and realized nanowrimo was coming up and decided to get to work. i only stuck at nano pace for one day though, lolive returned from hiatus but don't expect the plot to make much sense if you're a fan of faust this is mostly a puella magi fic with some names from faust. sorry >.<
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19





	1. The Enigmatic Warrior

**Author's Note:**

> Content warning for depictions of violence, gore, and the like.

"All my life I've seen a shadow follow me. I cannot understand why, but it creeps at the corners of my sight, begging I search for it. All my life, I've sought to understand the world, and there's much I've learned and discovered. But I've never found the answer to my question. 'Why?'

Why are humans born into this world, this never-ending pendulum of hope and despair? What reason is there for the suffering of humanity?

Yesterday, I met an exceptional woman named Gretchen. She's one of my students, and I hadn't paid her any mind before this, but now I have a longing to reach her and listen to her. 

I was out on a walk, and everything started shifting around me. I thought I had slipped into one of my daydreams, see. This occasionally happens to me, as I can only imagine other men of science experience. I see colors and shapes shift around me and forget all else. Vague forms, ghosts even, seeking to disturb my thoughts and break my resolve. Usually this ends in finding myself behind a street corner or dark alley, alive but unwell. 

This time was different.

I woke up and I was still surrounded by the images of a daydream, or so I thought. She was there, or at least, someone who looked like her was. Confident, dressed as a paladin or perhaps an angel might, but simultaneously unnerved by the world around us. If it was simply a daydream, she wouldn't experience it at all. 

A beast came charging at us, it's hard to describe otherwise what it could be, and slashed my leg. The pain told me this was real. Perhaps some sort of daemon?

The last thing I saw before I collapsed again was this angel's righteous fury against the daemon, and the last I heard was her voice. "He is not qualified."

I know not what she meant."

\--Journal of Dr. Henrich Faust, date XXXX

\--

The doctor woke up on the daybed of his study, bandages wrapped around his leg. A housekeeping maid told him what happened. He had been found by a city guard unconscious just outside of the city keep, rents in his trousers, drenched with his own blood. His leg was broken, but he was otherwise unharmed, something the housekeeper called a 'miracle'. No one mentioned the woman he was certain saved him. 

He was told to rest and let himself heal. But to be alone with nothing but his thoughts would be more punishment than any pain from his shattered bone. So he continued his studies, reading about archaic rituals until he was told to stand. Every single book in his study had been touched at one point or another by the time he could reach the desk with a crutch. 

"What an awful fate. How could the magnificent Faust let himself get hurt like this?"

"Did he fake his injury? How else could he have survived that much blood loss?"

He heard the rumors and voices, no doubt whispered by the housekeeping staff, he thought. Every time he glanced at the tome whose rituals he wanted to glean what mote of knowledge he was lacking from, he heard another whisper, and saw that familiar shadow once again out of the corner of his eye. 

There was one thing he hadn't tried yet. An ancient witch's recipe he had found years ago, one that could allow him to experience life as a woman. He ignored it at first, knowing from experience that most of these potions were disguised poison recipes, but upon scanning the crumbling pages of the grimoire one more time in his despair, he found all of the ingredients were things that could be procured without leaving the keep. 

And he wanted to know, oh so badly, what it'd be like. His steadily decaying body wasn't worth being in; if nothing else, he knew that. 

He asked his student Gretchen to prepare the materials. She obliged, looking at the old professor with a knowing glance. The urine of a pregnant mare, mint from the last full moon of harvest, powdered bone of a mouse kit, and an oil to allow absorption. He moved slowly with his crutches, but seeing the liquids flow as each substance was isolated in ways the old witches could only dream of excited him and brought a spark to his eye.

Not a week later, the first batch was prepared.

Gretchen brought it to him. A vial, to be injected into muscle, the needle freshly sterilized by heat. She smiled. "Is the old professor going to learn something new, after all this time?" 

He nodded. "Thank you, Gretchen. You may go now." He involuntarily glanced at the shadow to the corner of his eye, and the look on his student's eye flickered into alarm.

Gretchen nodded, then walked two paces away before she turned around, flashing a ring on her middle finger just long enough for Faust to see it. A coy smile appeared on her face, her body flashed, and just like that, the vial was shattered.

Faust looked to Gretchen, horrified at what she had done. His eyes blinked, first with shock, then with recognition. "The... the angel from before. That was you?" Gretchen stood there, holding a lance, wearing armor decorated with accoutrements that alone might seem overly garish but fit the form of the armor. A gem, the same color as her eyes, glowed on her shoulder.

Gretchen nodded, standing with an imposing posture. "Aye. The price I pay for my crimes against God. They manifest from shadows, consuming all who draw near. It wasn't my first such bout with her Familiars. Neither was It the first time I found you within it." She pointed directly to the side Faust had noticed that shadow, dark with hatred and fearsome in her new form. "And he's the one responsible. Right, Mephi?"

Faust had so many questions. So much he didn't know. The only one who could teach him was the woman standing before him. And she was calling a shadow on the corner of his eye by the beginning of the devil's name, Mephistopheles.

*In for a penny, in for a pound?*, he thought. Perhaps he could learn something new. The pursuit of new knowledge had always excited him, and that aside, the devil himself being here? How utterly unlikely was that?

He decided to take his chances with this new development. She had ruined his new experiment. That was all, he decided. He stood up on his newly healed leg, clutching the hand he just noticed the pain in. Lacerated by the needle and shards. It was doubtful it'd work right again, but he may yet know this shadow. Some of the witch's brew started to soak into his bloodstream through his hand.

"What did you mean, I'm not qualified?" Faust screamed at Gretchen, despite his fears. 

Gretchen turned her head, still holding her stance against the demon. Her voice turned cold as ice, and she started speaking in a monotone. "You simply aren't yet. I didn't mean it as an insult. I meant it as a warning. It's dangerous to be part of this. That's why I shattered that needle; I recognized the recipe from studying girls like us, and noticed him coming. Mephi's already after you, even though he knows he hasn't yet the power to bind you with his chains. For what reason, I know not."

Faust stepped back and froze, both curious about and shocked by his student's chilling words. He muttered to himself. "I want to know about your world. More than anything. I've learned so much about everything in this world, by sacrifice and virtue and discipline to the arts of knowledge..." 

Gretchen's glare pinned daggers into him. "What did you just say?"

Faust's voice rose back to a shout. "I want to know about your world!"

Gretchen spun her lance to point at her teacher's body, a smirk on her face, and a wildness in her eyes he hadn't seen before this day. "You think a contract with the devil is worth that? And here I thought I was dealing with a man of virtue." Faust gulped, frozen, as, quick as a flash, Gretchen spun and shattered his laboratory kit, and with it, the remainder of the supplies for his recipe.

She looked back at him from across the laboratory. "If you are qualified, prove it. Ask him for a wish. But remember this. He won't listen to you. Not unless you become a girl."

Faust swallowed his fears, realizing that was at least part of what the enigmatic warrior before him meant by qualification. "I'll recreate it!"

Gretchen frowned. "That's what I thought you would say." She lunged and pierced his shoulder. 

"Consider this a warning."

\--

Gretchen hid behind a pillar and looked around the hall in Faust's manor. Surely someone must have heard the crash. After checking for passerby and seeing no one, she flashed and her normal outfit appeared again, holding a gemstone the same as the one previously on her right pauldron, glowing with the same internal light. 

A long shadow fell in the hallway, cast by a small cat-like being at the end of it. A voice, one of soothing deception, entered Gretchen's mind. "You knew doing that was pointless, Gretchen."

She turned towards the shadow. Her own was cast by the sunset in the open balcony, spreading against the wall. "No one asked you, Mephi."

Mephi stepped out of the shadows. White fur, red markings, golden accents, a body like a cross between a cat and a rabbit with a fox's tail, made complete with a set of prehensile wings coming out of his ears. And that ruby stare, those hypnotic dead eyes. He was certainly not of this world. The voice emanated from him again, entering Gretchen's mind uninvited. "In his current state, I cannot interact with him. Not until he's qualified to make a contract with me. So why destroy his laboratory?"

Gretchen spoke in a monotone, gazing tiredly at the fae daemon. "It was a warning. About what may happen if he enters our reality. I don't want him getting involved."

Mephi lept onto the railing, stepping daintily towards Gretchen. "And why, pray tell, is that? Have you noticed his enormous potential as well?"

Gretchen stayed silent.

"Thought so." The devil closed his eyes, smiling with an unreadable grin. "In any case, I believe his wish's potential to be enormous, and the threads of fate around him only amplify it. I cannot comment beyond that, I'm afraid. It's rare, to see such power in an older male of your species. It's usually only those girls already qualified that I can see potential plainly."

The student looked around again for passerby, then dropped her voice to a whisper. "You mean those you hunt down, snake? Those you've slated to join us in our never-ending battle?"

Mephi's grin softened ever so slightly. "Absolutely. Every single one of them has a wish in their hearts, and it is my duty to grant it. That's what it means to be a guide to you Magical Girls."

Gretchen summoned her lance and swung, but Mephi was already gone.


	2. The Witch's Kiss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning for depictions of dysphoria and suicidal ideation

A month had passed since Faust's encounter with Gretchen. Since then, she had been missing from lessons. When questioned, none of the other students knew who she was, though they had been there every single day. It was as if she were never there, his injuries aside.

The shards of glass in the professor's laboratory took hours to clean. Nothing was salvageable; even the smallest piece of the shattered equipment could potentially harm Faust's body further than even Gretchen's attack. He wanted to, though. He noticed some signs of the medication, a softening of appearance alongside a brightening of his mood. What was in that witch's brew he had prepared? Why was it so dangerous that his student would risk killing him to destroy it?

Was his desire, his wish, truly that dangerous?

He pondered the words of the enigmatic warrior who destroyed his laboratory. "If you are qualified, prove it." If one of the requirements to join this world was to 'become a girl' like Gretchen claimed, what would it take to trick Mephi into thinking he was, if only for another brief moment? Was that the intent of the brew, to contact the devil himself?

He looked at his reflection in the mirror. The years dedicated to science hadn't treated his body well, he was pushing 60 and was endlessly tired. Scars riddled where rough, oily skin wasn't. Most of them caused by his own experiments. As he gazed, the clouds of doubt rose around him. Everything was emptiness, everything felt right for just that brief moment after the vial shattered. Faust lost sight of everything around him, his own features distorting in the reflection. 

"Maybe you should just die, little one."

A voice. An alien voice to Faust's mind, but it felt soothing, almost? It was different from the voices that usually shifted in and out of his reality. 

Faust replied back, feeling disjointed from himself, his voice carrying on as if it were a dream. "I should... shouldn't I? I've had a good life, I don't really need to know everything... do I?"

The voice agreed. "Come with me then, my precious child?"

He dreamily nodded, seeing colors shift around him. 

Bit by bit, he felt weaker. He thought he imagined the shifting landscape of blocks and clouds as he wandered deeper into the labyrinth. 

\--

The swift shadow of the enigmatic warrior followed the trail he led to her quarry. Gretchen had stayed in the area, hiding in the alleys of the city she was starting to call home. At least, it could be her base of operations. One particular Witch had been the cause of several missing children in the past week, and as per usual, they were drawn to Faust's latent potential as a Magical Girl. 

This wasn't the first time she had seen his neck bear the Witch's Kiss. The stamina drain alone of such constant attacks should be taxing on even the professor's most hyperfocused states. But each time, his search for knowledge had prevailed, with little sign of stopping. This was why she was drawn to him, driven to protect him. Even as a normal human, he had given his life to bettering the society that flourished around them, despite the curses that they all carried with them. 

And now she ruined it. She couldn't show her face to him after what she had done. Mephi's words had shaken her to the core. He was being hunted by the evil forces of the world, so he was already a part of her world.

A teardrop ran down her eye as she lept from block to block, watching her teacher from the Labyrinth's twisted, painted sky. She at the scene from above. They were in what looked like a bedroom. The faint sound of a crying baby disturbed her eardrums. She saw Faust wandering towards a massive crib, a stuffed bear sitting on the edge. The true culprit, the Witch. The Familiars were drawing closer, ready to pounce and consume Faust. 

Gretchen couldn't allow these monsters to live. She jumped in front of the ailing, Kissed person in front of her.

Faust shook to realization, the Kiss fading from his neck. "God... what the hell? Which hell is this place? Gretchen, is that really you?"

Gretchen offered her hand, nodding, whispering desperately. "You need to escape. She's onto us. My magic is running low, so I have to slay this beast. This is your one chance to get out of here alive and lucid. 

Faust shook his head. "I couldn't get out if I wanted to. I don't know where 'here' is."

Gretchen scowled, realizing he was correct, but not knowing how to address it. He's part of our world now, isn't he?, she thought. I'll can just tell him. 

"Faust, do you remember your paper on visual overlays? How there were certain locations that induced a dream-like state in most people who wandered into them, twisting their vision into horrifying labyrinths driven by what can only be described as a hallucination into your self-conscious? You're in one of those. You would have to escape physically; the labyrinth itself is entered through a sort of portal, but there's too many of this beast's Familiars."

"Was that what was whispering to me earlier? What an utter joke, telling me I should just die. Alas, I'm quite injured... and tired..." Faust slumped on Gretchen's arm, and she held him close.

"Guess I'll get you out then, friend. We're going to have to retreat if you're to live." Gretchen summoned her lance to use with her free hand, and cleared a path through the Familiars. All the while, little by little, her Soul Gem faded from its shining natural state, accumulating curses.

Gretchen, the enigmatic warrior, ran towards the light.

\--

Outside the Labyrinth, Faust had so many questions. Gretchen couldn't answer them. "Be patient. You're safe enough now. Get back to the keep, I'll find a way in. Or ask Mephi, if he'll listen. He's a horrible, demonic snake that deserves anything that happens to him, but I've never known him to answer my questions dishonestly. Just make sure you think of what he doesn't say when he says something."

"I need to go back. I can't figure out what place this is without going back." Faust complained. This was the 'other world' that he was so tempted by, after all.

Gretchen smiled, tears running down her face. "I know, you're curious. But my magic is running low. I have to go back. She waits for release on the other side of this portal. And only one of Mephi's warriors can give that release to her. I'll be back before you know it."

A twinge of pain sparked in her chest. Anxiety. Knowing this man wouldn't listen. Knowing her wish might be betrayed by simple curiosity. 

She shook it off and dove back into the portal. The bear. That was the Witch's true form, was it not? A small curse flitted back and forth in the drained portion of her Soul Gem. 

Back again, into the void, to fight the Witch.


	3. The Bear Witch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> content warning for violence

The way to the labyrinth faded from sight, and with it, Gretchen. Faust knew on the other end of that portal was every secret he could imagine and then some. He had to get back to that world.

"Why do we want to get involved so badly? What exactly is there other than death and pain on the other side of the barrier?" Faust whispered to no one in particular. He slowly got up, dizzy from the Witch's Kiss that adorned his neck a short time before. He couldn't see the entrance, but he knew where it was on instinct. He walked towards it, then stopped, just before the shining runes.

"What do we want?"

If it was knowledge, surely Faust could ask... Gretchen? No. That wouldn't do. She had attacked without hesitation when she saw that shadow. Who knew how she would act once she took care of whatever lurked inside the labyrinth. What about the being she called Mephi, an apparent pet name for a daemon of legend, rumored to be the ruler of hell himself. Mephistopheles? The name itself made Faust shiver in both excitement and horror. But would there be answers? Hell, would he even speak to the professor? 

Gretchen it is, he figured. But something didn't quite feel right about the answer. There had to be some reference to this world in his old texts. It was quite possible it's been alluded to by even things he's written without really knowing anything. Whatever it was had to do with this 'qualification' that his mind kept circling back to.

Becoming a woman was the first step. But did he want that? Why did the thought keep crossing his mind? Why did he feel wrong looking in the mirror after finding it was not only possible but likely now that he had a recipe? Why did he feel like helping Gretchen with her quest was the right thing to do?

His first answer was 'no, I just want the data'. But Faust had kept musing on the concept more and more. Their second answer was 'maybe, if only to learn about Gretchen's world. And this labyrinth was the only right place to do it.

The labyrinth entrance sparked with fury. Faust stepped back. They had to decide quickly. If Gretchen killed the daemon before they could figure out its nature and tendencies, they doubted she'd chronicle it. They wanted all the information they could get.

Was it just helping Gretchen? Or was it right for them? Something at the back of their mind whispered to them that it was okay, that it ultimately only mattered what they became if they let it matter. To do the unthinkable, 'do not let yourself be constrained by common sense'. Giving up their former life seemed nonsensical, but letting go of this feeling of purpose and of yearning to be someone, anyone else would be a travesty.

In the end, she had to do it. Only warriors like Gretchen were capable of surviving in these labyrinths. And the first step was to become qualified to be one. She wanted this more than anything she'd wanted in her life. 

Faust turned her back on the labyrinth entrance to see a white beast that glowed with an iridescent light; half rabbit, half cat, and pure evil. "I see you've awoken the wish in your heart, Doctor Henrich Faust. Or is there another name you'd like to be called?"

The words appeared in her mind as a thought altogether alien to her. Was it the rabbit? Was it... infiltrating her mind? She chose to be cautious. "I've never cared for my given name. Faust is fine. Are you... speaking to me?"

The beast smiled. "Of course. I've been watching you for the past few years, Doctor Faust. Off and on, of course."

Faust shook her head in disbelief. "Gretchen warned me about you, you know. She said you forced her to commit crimes against God. She said that the world you exposed her to is dangerous, enough so that she destroyed my laboratory to prevent it. Who exactly are you, and what do you want with me?"

Nimble as ever, the beast jumped on a nearby pedestal. "I've gone by many names. The one humans in this area would be familiar with is Mephistopheles. And I've come with one purpose. Doctor Faust, I would like you to make a contract with me, and become a Magical Girl!" 

\--

The Witch bade its time at the center of the labyrinth. She detected a magical presence earlier, but no matter. Whatever was coming for her would come to her soon enough. Her Familiars were falling right and left, but she had a trap waiting for her prey. The sweetest prey of all, a Magical Girl.

Gretchen dove for the door she knew led to the bedroom-like lair of the beast. A pack of Familiars, each looking like distorted childrens' toys, clumped near the entrance. Her eyes darted desperately to each one as a pain in her chest rose. Her Soul Gem became dimmer and dimmer, ever so slightly, with each minute. No time for this.

She drove her lance through the monsters and into the doorway, stumbling a little. Several doorways collapsed in on each other at once, each room passing by quicker and quicker, each The bear sat on the bed, innocent-looking. Lamps and toys surrounded the bed, lighting the room with a soft glow that seemed inviting. Gretchen mused to herself about how many victims had fallen to such a cordial sight at the end of the twisted children's nightmare that surrounded this labyrinth. 

Looking around, she could see Familiars dancing at the edges of the shadows. Taunting her. The bear flopped over onto the wooden ground. Her target.

"Let's make sure you don't kill anyone else. Chariot of Fire!" 

Gretchen charged with her lance, a motorcycle with red and gold stylings materializing under her, hurtling her violently forward towards the plush. Her lance struck home and hit the Bear Witch, impaling it.

"Burn in hell, Witch! Heaven's Inferno!" Gretchen screamed her attack's name, but nothing happened. The bear pulled its arm back, materialized it into a plant, and punched her off her motorcycle, both crashing to the ground. 

Gretchen spat a bloody tooth out and pushed herself painfully off the ground. She mentally inspected herself for injuries, watching for changes to the Witch pinned to the wall by her lance. Nothing broken other than the tooth. Soul Gem dim. No reserves. She might have to retreat, but she'll live.

"Live and do what, be a coward?"

That little voice at the back of her head crowded her thoughts. A certain darkness inside of her. Everything else grew dim. Gretchen saw the ground.

"Why not just give up? You'll live longer that way, won't you? Of course, that'll mean I'll live longer too~ I'm you and you're me, after all", the voice crooned.

Her thoughts raced against this entity. The only thing she could do is resist it.

"Gretchen!"

A familiar voice came from outside.

"Gretchen, wake up! Gretchen!"

Was that... Faust's voice? What the hell was the doctor doing back in the labyrinth?

"I don't have time for this!" Gretchen mentally screamed down the entity rising within her. "Either you help me fight or you leave me alone, got it?"

The being within the Magical Girl rose into the form of a seraphim. At the center, Gretchen recognized her eye. "Are you sure that's what you want? Allow me to take control and we'll have all the power you desire. Why not give in?"

The shadow of its many wings threatened to overtake Gretchen, body and soul. She didn't know it, but help was here.


	4. Of Wishes and Witches

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw for violence

If capriciousness were a being, it would be the fae daemon that stood before Faust in her study by the labyrinth's entrance. "I would like you to make a contract with me and become a Magical Girl.", Mephi projected. The infiltration of her mind was awkward, and even if she wanted to hide her thoughts, this daemon could read them. 

"I can grant you one wish. Anything at all. It could even be the most strange or fantastic of miracles. In exchange, Doctor Faust, you would become a Magical Girl and fight in my war against the cursed beings known as Witches." Mephi explained the terms of his contract to the aging professor. "A Soul Gem would be created for you, the symbol of our contract and proof that you've joined our cause. If it breaks or is lost, my obligation as a guide is null and void, so you would need to keep it safe."

Faust realized Gretchen was holding an egg-like gem when she shattered the vial of purified witch's brew. "I've seen one before. Are they what grant power sufficient to fight such beasts? What exactly is the nature of these Witches?"

Mephi smiled, walking past Faust to the labyrinth entrance. "If Magical Girls are born of the hope in this world, Witches can be said to be born of despair. They are driven by curses that spread from the negative emotions of humans, and when something unthinkable happens, they're usually the cause, though there are plenty of curses within normal humans that are the cause of just as many atrocities. Your wish and your Soul Gem would grant you the power of miracles, as well as an obligation of our contract to fight these wicked beings.

Faust took a step away from the portal. Anything she wanted could be hers, but the duty of fighting Witches must have been the punishment that Gretchen had mentioned in her first lucid meeting with the enigmatic warrior. A crime against God, accepting a contract with the devil, though from the sound of it, without these Magical Girls, the world would be overrun with curses and despair. She wondered how the contract would be enforced. 

Mephi blinked, swishing his tail. "Something tells me just the miracle of becoming a Magical Girl would be sufficient for you, but I cannot suggest a wish, and I can't simply subject you to this without a contract and a wish. I have certain rules I must follow, after all. I will say this. Gretchen's power is waning. I can feel that much. I also cannot detect any other Magical Girls in range. She's deep within the Labyrinth, too deep for any ordinary human to find her. Only another Magical Girl can save her now."

Faust was deep in thought. Was there any other connection between the beasts Gretchen hunts and these Magical Girls other than the hunt? Or was it simply the price of a deal with Mephistopheles? She remembered and spoke out loud the words of her former master, the one who stoked her interest in helping the cursed people in this cursed world. "If ever the devil comes offering a miracle, reevaluate your life. That's what she said."

Mephi looked taken aback. "In that case, if you don't need me, I guess I'll be going. If you need me, just call. I'll be waiting." He started walking towards a shadow.

Faust reached out to the angelic cat-rabbit, desperate. Gretchen had to live. "Wait. I didn't say I wasn't going to do it."

Mephistopheles looked back at her, staring directly into her eyes. "Thought so. Alright. What is the wish, Doctor Faust, that you will become a Magical Girl for?"

"I wish to..." She took a breath in to gather her thoughts. "I'm one of the greatest scientists of our generation. I've discovered and researched and experimented with so many things in this natural world, yet on certain subjects, my knowledge is lacking and I will die before I can finish my work, and I can't bring myself to face that. If I'm going to pray for a miracle, would I want knowledge? Or are there things that even the devil doesn't know?"

Mephi blinked. "I can't suggest anything, Doctor Faust."

Faust laughed. "Of course. In that case, I wish for the miracle of eternal youth. That will give me enough time to discover anything I need. If I'm to become a "Magical Girl", you might as well make my body into a girl's while you're at it. Let me discover for myself how the other side lives."

Mephi smiled, spreading his rabbit-like prehensile ears as though they were wings. Faust cringed in pain as a green gem came out of her heart, spinning, gold highlights weaving themselves onto it. "Very well. Doctor Faust, your wish has prevailed over entropy. Now, accept your destiny as a Magical Girl.

As she reached out and grabbed her Soul Gem, Faust saw her body melt and morph into that of a teenager. She felt a hot tear run down her cheek as she smiled. Her wish had come true.

\--

The labyrinth was quiet. With Mephi's guidance, Faust ran to the Witch's lair, faster than she had ever moved. Only one thing was on her mind, and that was saving the Magical Girl who opened this world to her. Faust saw the Witch, now free, cautiously approaching Gretchen.

"Gretchen! Wake up, Gretchen! Wait... what happened to your Soul Gem?"

The gem on Gretchen's shoulder glowed faintly, a black corrupting haze covering the light within. Mephi projected a message to Faust. "The Witch has what you need to cure this. Hurry, Faust!"

Faust turned to the bear, a staff appearing in her hands. "H-how do I use this thing?", she asked, but Mephi had already gone.

"That bastard... Come on, staff, do something!" Faust swung the staff at the bear, hitting its plush exterior and bouncing off. The bear pulled its arm back and punched, throwing Faust across the room and pinning her to the wall with its vines.

"No."

A voice from below.

"I won't let you hurt her!"

Gretchen stood up, dark flames around her. A seraph with its hundred wings lifted her above the bear. "I... we... We can't let you hurt her anymore!" The wings beat once, and Gretchen and the bear were both on the ground, a lance from each wing pinning the bear. The seraph dissipated, and black fluid spilled from the bear's heart. 

The labyrinth faded to reveal Faust's laboratory. Gretchen picked up what was left behind. Her Soul Gem shone brighter than Faust had ever seen it. She threw the object at Faust and she caught it.

"Here. You'll be wanting to study this. Right, Faust?"

Faust threw it back. "Mephi said that I'd need to use it to cure whatever that weird darkness was. That was really bad, wasn't it?"

Gretchen set the item on a desk with a metallic click. "I'm not sure how, but that's not bothering me anymore. My Soul Gem was purified by something. If it wasn't a Grief Seed, I'm not sure what it was. I heard your voice back there, so I guess you saved me, and I don't like owing favors."

Faust looked at what Gretchen called a Grief Seed. It was black, with a sharp needle and a bear's head and vines imprinted on it in metal detailing. "Are these important? Mephi never mentioned them."

Gretchen shook her head. "There's a lot of things he doesn't say, kid. Grief Seeds are arguably the most valuable thing to a Magical Girl. Use it, and every bit of impurity that your Soul Gem gathers is cleared. I recommend sharing if you team up with other Magical Girls. Best to avoid unnecessary fights." She turned her back and started walking out. "Anyway, I'm not detecting any Witches, and as long as you don't use too much magic, you won't have to go hunting for a while. So I'm out. Have fun with your research, teach."

As the enigmatic warrior left, she started crying. "How could she go and make herself into one of us? To be a Magical Girl is to waltz with death."


	5. Respite

Faust went to lay down in her study. What had she done? What had she become?

What was the seraph that sprouted from the enigmatic Gretchen? It looked unnatural, nothing a human would have within them. If anything, it looked more like one of those 'Witches' she had gotten a Grief Seed from. Was there a connection? What would she even call this beast that emerged from the warrior she was only beginning to understand? 

Perhaps it was just an illusion. A hallucination, manifested by stress. She wasn't exactly inexperienced with this kind of thing. But if it was, Gretchen wouldn't have seen it, wouldn't have felt it. She wouldn't have defeated the Witch. They both would have died. It also took away the 'impurity', as she called it, that her Soul Gem built up, and who knew what would have happened then.

She needed to call it something to distinguish it from the Magical Girls that brought hope and Witches that fed on despair. Something that came from the inside. A manifestation of the human soul. A doppelganger, reflecting not what's on the outside, but what lurks within. Was this something that all Magical Girls were capable of? Fearful of? 

In any case, she got her new body. New body, new hormonal structure, new surging emotion and forsaken power. That was what she wished for. It would take time to discover if her wish for eternal youth would bear fruit, but it was clear that the power of Mephistopheles was real. 

Was that worth it? Could anything be worth even a single battle with these wretched beasts? It was the price she paid for her prayer to a daemon, but she didn't really have a choice. She could have ran, but that meant sacrificing Gretchen, didn't it? She could have left her behind, could she?

No. Her wish was too important. The timing ultimately didn't matter. She was a Magical Girl now. 

She felt a presence at the edge of her mind. An emotional dissonance against her thoughts. It had a clear direction, and felt similar to the Bear Witch she saw the other day. Bracing herself, she flickered into Magical Girl form without realizing it. For an instant, she felt herself floating in space as her outfit enveloped her. Then she heard a plate drop and shatter.

"P-pardon me. I was j-just looking for Master Faust. I didn't expect guests." One of the housekeepers had seen her transform. Of course. 

Faust rose her staff, the tip starting to glow, then lowered it, smiling, lowering her voice to a whisper. "Caroline. It's me." A trustworthy group of individuals would be essential allies in her hunt against these Witches, providing safety where it was clear other Magical Girls had none. No secrets.

"Y-you're not Master Faust!" The elderly woman questioned her sanity. This was a teenage girl, not the elderly professor she was employed by.

Faust opened her journal and read from the text encoded in a cipher only she knew. "Am I not? 'Day 35. Cleanup duty. My former student certainly made a mess of things. With our main hand no longer working, let's use the opportunity to study its muscular structure to see if it can be replicated.'" She set the book down, having made her point. "Let's just call my latest experiment a success, shall we?"

"M-Master Faust? It's really you! You've been missing for days! The students have been asking questions, and we've tried to delay of course, but what can we do when... I thought you'd gone missing on those bouts of madness that you've mentioned plague you." Caroline sobbed. "I thought you were dead."

Faust sat down on her bed. "It's a long story. I can explain everything, but this doesn't leave the manor. None of it. You might think me a madman, and it's true, but I swear by my soul that this is lucid." 

She explained first about the visions she had. What a Labyrinth was. A closed partition of space, only allowing those invited into the lair. Magical Girls and Witches, Soul Gems and Grief Seeds, wishes and curses, and how they all seemed to interact. Gretchen's reaction to her prayer. The beast that erupted from her.

"Oh." After explaining it all to the tired housekeeper, who kept looking at her with a strange, confused expression, she finally realized why Gretchen was so angry. "I've made a terrible mistake."

\--

Gretchen was in the castle courtyard, wearing a doublet and loose pants, practicing techniques with a wooden rod in place of her lance. Since Faust was now a Magical Girl, she had to be prepared to face her in combat should relations turn sour. A healer-type or a tank-type could cause trouble for her. She thrust the wood into the air, yelling with each strike, imagining her opponent's parry, matching it with one of her own. She imagined magic bolts coming at her, and jumped back, spinning her rod defensively. 

She pinpointed in her imagination the location of her opponent's Soul Gem and jabbed towards it, striking a practice dummy on the collar and knocking it down in a sprawl. Best to cut off the source of magic immediately. With that strike, she spun her rod and stood at ready.

In the distant past, she had sought relationships with other Magical Girls. Teamwork, she thought, would make things easier in her endless hunt. But one betrayal, one loss, and one lonely night after another changed her, made her distrustful. She held onto her wish, to know her future so she could face it without fear. The future scared her, and so did the fearsome ability that came with her wish; she knew what would happen to those she was close to. 

The strings of fate around each Magical Girl bind her until they overwhelm her wish. And so it was, that every Magical Girl she met had met her fate by a Witch. This endless war against this never-ending stream of daemons led Gretchen to curse herself. Faust's lessons were her only solace, and the Grief Seeds from the Witch tracking her down kept her curse from overwhelming her. She felt herself getting close, and knew that it'd be dangerous. She knew she saw a Witch at the end of her fate. The only way to protect Faust was to prevent her from becoming one of them.

But this being, this unknowable thing, erupted from her at a crucial moment. The battle in her mind after her collapse had been going badly until the newly-minted Magical Girl Faust's words convinced her it was real. Her will to survive kicked in, and remarkably, she managed to calm that part of her down.

The distortion of the self-conscious. The knowledge of her innermost thoughts and feelings. This being knew her. Was her. The only thing it could be was a Witch, but she felt herself in its thoughts. In its curse. In its hidden wish.

How could this be?

It was the curse, she reasoned. If the human soul is capable of curses that they need to collect, and Witches evolve from curses, then an especially powerful soul would evolve a Witch when their mind is filled with them. Her Soul Gem dimmed to the brink of collapse. It could have been destroyed. Only a fluke prevented the Witch within her from taking her mind over. Its Grief Seed, while not manifesting, cleaned her Soul Gem. 

Gretchen laughed out loud from the realization. "Of course. How could I be so stupid. That's why we couldn't find her Soul Gem after that battle." Her face dropped when she realized she had killed her friend. The Grief Seed's physical form must have come from the Soul Gem. 

She dropped to her knees and tears ran down her face.


	6. The Three Magical Girls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw for depiction of intentional misgendering

Faust stared at her Soul Gem. So this was the price of a miracle. Eternal youth, but in what form?

The form of a monster. Whatever that being that sprouted from Gretchen was, be it a Witch or some other manifestation of the subconscious, it was clearly not human. Humans couldn't create something like that; maybe within their souls, but unlike Magical Girls, they couldn't manifest into beings of destruction.

"I'm no longer human. Am I okay with that?" Faust mused, then laughed. Did it matter? What is a human, what made up the human soul? If she still had one, wasn't that enough? Or did Mephistopheles take that away too?

She felt the presence of dark magic, curses, some distance outside the walls of the city she called home. Flickering into Magical Girl form, she felt herself drawn to the magic, and without even thinking about it, she was on the hunt. Regardless of her form, she was still a Magical Girl. She had to keep everyone safe from Witches. It was the duty bestowed by her contract. She saw familiar alleys and streets, familiar faces who didn't recognize her despite her relationships, before ending up next to the keep, where knights trained for coming battles with neighboring city-states.

She felt another magical presence as she got closer. The familiar, intense magic of Gretchen. A pattern of feathers overlaying each other, hiding the core that induced fear.

If she was also hunting the Witch, they might end up on the battlefield together again. 

The magic signature changed slightly. The Witch was on the move. Running away. She gave chase. A crowd of people turned to her, all with glazed eyes and blank faces. A crow cawed. The people chased after her. The minions of the Witch, or simply those captured by her? One turned into a white rabbit. A Familiar.

"O rabbit, to your Master I must follow. Lead the way." Faust called to the rabbit. The crow cawed again, its screech opening a portal. Into the Labyrinth the rabbit fled, and Faust followed.

\--

Gretchen had detected the Witch a while ago, but chose to deny her instincts and continue her practice, no matter how much pain she endured by doing so. She figured it was headed her way, so she'll run into it on the way back. Then, she felt not one but three magical presences. The first, of course, was the Witch, a distinct pattern of forest hunts and tales of perpetual tragedy. The second, Faust, judging by the matching magical pattern from the other day, one of curiosity and need for change in this human world. The third, Gretchen did not recognize their wants, but it was clearly another Magical Girl.

Who was the other Magical Girl? She knew she had felt this presence before, but it was muddled. They were clearly trying to hide their presence. She hadn't seen another Magical Girl in this city before Faust made her contract with Mephi. 

She spun her lance in her hand before standing in ready position. As soon as she had time she'd go investigate.

"Very good, Squires. At ease." The castle's head guardsman Alphonse, a portly man who could nonetheless hold himself in any fight, bade Gretchen and her fellow knights-in-training return to their duties. Gretchen approached him, holding her training lance in front of her like a bag. 

"I was wondering, um, Sir..." 

The head guard spun around. "Hold your lance properly, Squire." Gretchen shifted her lance vertically. "Now, state your name, rank, and business."

"Gretchen Margarete Gudrun, Squire to Alphonse of the Order of Mount Brocken, Sir." Alphonse nodded, and she continued. "I have some business outside the castle that I need to address, Sir. I can explain the situation to you, but it might sound fanciful at best, my apologies."

Alphonse nodded. "Is this to do with finding that Faust? I know that's why you joined up." He'd heard that Faust had gone missing, but not any details. "Paul's ill. We won't have enough men to cover the walls."

Gretchen felt like rolling her eyes. The mountain fortress was impenetrable even without the soldiers who called this place home. One person wouldn't matter. "I know where Faust is. I'll have to explain a few things first, and this business can't wait that long. But I can show her to you."

"Show... her to me." Alphonse echoed, catching on the pronoun. He thought for a moment. The Faust he knew had been a man to the best of his knowledge, but he couldn't know what lurked within the troubled professor's heart. Best to play along, Gretchen's Faust might be a different Faust for all he knew. "And this is... the good doctor? Did one of her experiments go awry?"

Gretchen breathed a sigh of relief. "Aye. Or rather, succeeded a little too well. She's having a hard time getting people to believe she's the real Faust."

Alphonse erupted in a full-bellied laugh. "And I thought I've heard everything. Well, I'll let you go, Squire Gudrun. Bring this Faust back, and I'll listen to your explanation. Dismissed."

"Thank you!", Alphonse heard echoing through the halls. Gretchen was already gone.

\--

Caroline looked at the Grief Seed on Faust's desk, surrounded by instruments she gathered to measure its energies. She tapped it, and nothing flew out. "Empty. Good. I'll make certain our little pretender Magical Girl won't last much longer." She smiled, holding it by the pin. "Ever since Faust started hanging around that Gretchen fellow, I haven't been able to see him at all~ And now he's gone and done this to himself! How could he betray my wish for that!"

Caroline pocketed the Grief Seed. "I can't accept him. If he needs Grief Seeds to survive now, I'll make sure he doesn't get any."

Mephi opened his eyes in the shadows, glinting across the room.


	7. Lurking in the Depths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> cw violence

Faust held her Soul Gem in front of her, paying no mind to her surroundings. The Witch's magic was difficult for her to trace, but she eventually tracked it to the market ward of the castle's outer grounds, where merchants and day laborers went about their business. A Familiar lurked in the shadow of some crates near the harbor. Faust glared at it.

A man approached behind her. "Hey, uh, lady. You shouldn't be here."

Faust flickered into her Magical Girl form and held the point of her staff at the man. The burly dock worker held his hands up, fear in his eyes at the display of magic. The rookie Magical Girl smiled. "No, you shouldn't be here. This place has evil lurking that only I can handle. Believe me, I'm a doctor~"

Was this a dream? The man nodded in agreement. "I think I could go for a pint...", he muttered, backing up, face still covered in a mask of bewilderment. Faust lowered her staff and turned her eyes to the labyrinth entrance. She gulped down her fears and approached, disappearing from the man's sight.

As the familiar visions of her personal hell that she once thought were hallucinations surrounded her, Faust smiled. "At least, at very least, I've saved one person."

The man turned around and started to walk out. He choked on his breath, and looked down. He saw blood. His blood, a dagger's handle and an elegant hand covered in a sheer glove. Then nothing.

Caroline came out from the shadows, pulling the gloves. "No, no, no you haven't, dear Faust. I will have you back, my naughty perfect groom~ Then I'll show you who really runs the show around here." She ran for the shifting mass of energy that served as a portal to the labyrinth.

\--

Gretchen flew from stone rooftop to stone rooftop, using her lance as a makeshift pole vault. It was louder than simply jumping, but much, much faster. She felt an unnatural chill in the wind against her face. Whatever this was, it gave her an awful feeling in her gut. Nevertheless, she pressed forward. It's a Magical Girl's duty to hunt Witches, and that was what she knew lay ahead of her. 

"Faust had better not have gone Witch hunting before warning me. She's not ready to fight them. I can't let her get hurt, not with that other presence", she growled, fearful of the unknown magical signature she detected. Her teacher needed time to work her magic on the Grief Seed to give some hint as to the nature of Witches - some sort of edge that they could pass to others caught in the same trap. Though she had few to spare, she knew fighting in groups was optimal for safety's sake, so she had offered to help.

And she liked her. As a teacher, she was always willing to gently explain her theories, and the lack of pressure allowed her to absorb truths that had already bettered the lives of the people of Mount Brocken. She had been a friend to her, as much as a teacher can be to her student. And now she was a Magical Girl, just like her, and she was the teacher. But as with all of the people she had grown fond of, visions of Faust's future had entered her mind in her dreams. And it was what she feared. She would face her fate at the hand of a Witch. So she chose to stay at a careful distance.

The voice from within rose up. "We couldn't possibly match the great Faust, let alone pretend to teach her anything. She probably wants nothing to do with you now. How could you hurt her so ~viciously~ back there. You're just afraid of her power."

Gretchen shook her head, trying to drown out the voice of her most hidden self. 'Doppel' was the name they finally decided on when Faust questioned her about her collapse earlier. It seemed to be a sort of stress release, the internal curses being released from the Soul Gem when its limit is reached. If she hadn't heard Faust's voice, it likely would have overtaken her, and she knew what that meant. 

There was one thing that was snagging on her mind, and that was the nature of Witches. This Doppel eruption, the unsuccessful transformation of her Soul Gem, seemed to have been a rare occasion given what she had reasoned about it earlier. Its rise meant she would forever be at risk of transforming into a Witch.

She feared the Witch she had seen in her vision was the true, awakened form of that seraphim she had barely resisted. She was afraid of killing Faust.

\--

The labyrinth opened into an ocean that for some reason was breathable. Faust took a moment to practice a couple strokes in the waters, then pressed onward, using her Soul Gem to guide her through the depths. She sensed a second, muddled presence behind her. Familiars? The professor summoned her staff and twisted herself around, seeing a humanoid shadow in the murky water.

Another Magical Girl was here? She felt like she should greet her, but felt uneasy. Gretchen had told her to share with other Magical Girls. 

She waved, and a fish-like being -- a Familiar, but strangely different from the one she had seen before -- came biting towards her hand. She whipped her hand back but, slowed by the depths, she failed to pull it away in time, and blood wafted from the jagged bite wound. 

Strangely angular fish circled closer to her. The mass of silver looked like sparkling scales. A deep growl came from the depths. The Witch?

"Watch out, dummy!" Faust felt a powerful, painful kick to her head, tumbling her out of control and sending her spinning towards the depths. She regained control to see the strange school of fish circling her attacker. The voice sounded vaguely familiar.

"Come, my swarm of eternity. Weave my will across the being of these Familiars. Come forth, Spira!", the Magical Girl yelled. Her Soul Gem, which Faust had just noticed was pitch black, clouded the air around it with curses. Witch runes floated around it as it brightened just as Gretchen's had, a star in the miasma of destruction surrounding it. Skeletal images appeared in the haze, and swallowed the Familiars. 

A Doppel, Faust guessed. It seemed they weren't the first ones to learn of this power at the edge of annihilation. The voice sounded so familiar, her brain echoed, as she slowly lost consciousness. If only she could remember... 

The Magical Girl smiled and swam down to meet her prey.


	8. Birth of "Spira"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jeeze it's been a while
> 
> sorry i disappeared for so long and sorry it's been such a bummer cliffhanger. anyway caroline's had this coming a while. fuck terfs.

What seemed like an eternity for Faust passed in an instant. She felt herself slowly, slowly being lifted from the Labyrinth's waves. The beachside sunshine faded to show the truth of a whispering night's sky, peppered with radiant stars and a cresent moon. The Hunter's Witch had moved on. She blinked and saw Gretchen's confident smile, before fading into collapse. 

"Come on, we don't have time for this!" Her voice drove energy into her heart and she willed herself to open her eyes again.

Another weary glimpse of the situation around her showed the determined stare of a veteran Magical Girl, towering above her crumpled form on the fishing docks. A feeling of simultaneous hope and dread filled Faust. This Magical Girl had an elderly appearance, tired, smiling eyes, a soft face familiar despite the mask covering it. And a bloody dagger.

Gretchen pressed a cloth from her mantle into her arm, dripping red. 

"C-Caroli-", Faust managed to blurt out, before her broken ribs caused her to cough and sputter and writhe in pain. 

Gretchen pointed her lance at the hostile housekeeper, clutching a Grief Seed. "Let me ask you one more time. What the *hell* do you think you're doing, attacking a newbie Magical Girl like that?" She scowled at Caroline, looking for a weak point in her stance, cautiously walking her around to the edge of the docks.

Caroline pointed her knife at Faust. "Would you call *that* a Magical Girl? All I see is the boy I wanted when I was dumb and naive like you, the groom I wished Mephi would grant me, *ruined*!"

"Ruined *how*, precisely? By being granted the same miracle we were? Is she not entitled to her own desires?" Gretchen had little patience for this woman's attitude towards Faust.

"I heard it from him myself! He told me he had made a grave mistake!"

Faust lifted herself off the ground, using her staff for support. The crystalline tip of the staff started glowing and green sparkles swirled in a spiral around both her and Gretchen. Her bones shifted back into place, and she felt air return to her punctured lung. Tears gathered in her eyes. "That wasn't what I meant, and you damn well know it, Caroline." 

Caroline's eyes darted between the two Magical Girls in front of her. "I wanted to protect you! I knew all along that Mephi was looking for you." Fuming, she threw a knife at Gretchen.

Gretchen deflected the projectile with her lance, bored with the betrayed bride. "Didn't see you around any of the Labyrinths I found our Magical Girl trainee here in. Looks like you didn't do a good enough job."

Caroline started screaming, tears running down her face. "He was to be mine, dammit! The court magister, what a handsome smile. I made my wish, and that's how Mephi knew! I couldn't let a single person alert him of this world, no no no~"

Gretchen gritted her teeth and deflected a hail of icy needles, ignoring the interruption of her assailant. "What I *did* notice was my squadmates going missing. One by one. I saw it before it happened, each and every time. A Witch I had never seen before lurked at the end of their paths. Then you said the name of your Doppel, and it hit me. That wasn't a Witch."

Caroline spread a blue cloak, knives and chains circling around her in a woven barrier of metal. "What exactly are you accusing me of? If our only fate is to die, why not just let it happen?"

Gretchen spat on the ground. "Yes. Why don't you just let it happen and let those of us who *want* another chance at life just *be*?"

Faust stared at the ground, shocked to the core by the implications. The school she taught at was known for its openness, but every year someone had gone missing in classes she had taught, and it caused the building to get a bad reputation for safety. Her investigation into these matters, her notes in the cipher-riddled diary she kept on her person, it all pointed her towards rumors that led her to a Kiss and a Witch's labyrinth.

Her thoughts fought the subconscious driven by Caroline's wish. Unbidden, intrusive, and intoxicating. *Run into her arms, forget everything, go back to being the man you thought you could be. She'll take you back, she'll welcome you home*. She shook her head, slowly at first then rapidly. 

As righteous anger sparked in her, clarity returned and she fought back the torrent of emotion, the alligator tears of the manipulator in front of her. She clasped Gretchen's hand in defiance of her inner monologue. A magic circle linked their powers. Collecting the power of Gretchen's intensity, she weaved a fireball at the base of a cross-woven barrier. Several barriers appeared in the sky surrounding her. "Tell me this. My students had lives and wishes of their own. Did you not trample their wishes to fine powder?"

"It wasn't your life! It was all to keep me going so I could protect you!" Caroline's voice cracked. She shot a torrent of knives at Gretchen. Each one was met with a fire blast from one of Faust's barriers. 

"Is that what you're doing now? Protecting me? By telling me I'm a fake? By killing kids and stealing their souls?" Faust yelled back at the housekeeper 10 years her senior even prior to her wish. She shuddered. "It's a funny thing, the power of a wish. Even now my heart tells me to come to your side. But my head, and my hand, says to stay by those who accept me for what I am."

Caroline answered by clutching her chest, fumes writhing from her Soul Gem. A crack of glass, then a scream. This one sounded real. She fell backwards into the ocean, shadows surrounding her. "I will not be betrayed by you. I will nooootttttaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA --"

Shadows surrounded Gretchen and Faust as the scenery shifted around them.


	9. The Fate-eater Girl

A multi-armed creature of ice and rain crashed around the section of the dock that floated in a sea of broken porcelain dolls. Ethereal skulls surrounded the two Magical Girls left standing on the wooden island. Runes spelled out a single word. "Spira"

Gretchen grabbed Faust by the collar and lept from the dock, using her lance to get as much vertical height as possible. She saw a stable ledge and a glowing gate to outside. "Hang on, Teach. This is gonna be rough. *Chariot of Fire!*"

A motorcycle materialized under the duo as they flew through the air. The skulls crashed into the center of the dock, exploding and destroying the wooden boards. The wail of the murderous housekeeper rang across the newly-formed Labyrinth. A rocket engine ignited in the back of the motorcycle, propelling them with a woooooooshhhh that burned the Familiars behind them and threw them out onto the street.

The two got off the motorcycle, which then vanished into sparkling filigree. Gretchen grabbed Faust by the neck. "Would you mind telling me what that was about? Who was she?"

Faust looked at the verge of tears. Gretchen let her down.

"I've known Caroline since I was a child. She was a friend of my older sister's." Gretchen adjusted her eyebrows quizzically, but bade Faust continue. "One day, I noticed a strange ring on Caroline's finger, and then my thoughts were of nothing but her. I was so enthusiastic about the idea that when I was 12, I was told I was arranged to be married to her."

Gretchen scowled. "That's awfully young. I'm surprised your parents went through with it."

Faust shrugged. "They were nobles of the old aristocracy. Marriage was more about powerful alliances to them, and children naught but tools to achieve their purpose. They entitled me 'court magister' so the other families wouldn't question it openly."

She continued. "The day of the ceremony, my sister went missing. My parents, fearing for their safety, fled the scene. I saw what looked like my sister's eyes behind a couple trees, so I followed them. At the end of a ruined building, I saw Caroline, holding what I know now is a Grief Seed. Her chest -- her Soul Gem -- glowed with the same light as her ring. It beckoned to me, and I forgot my purpose. I... ran into her arms." 

Faust started crying. "I can't even remember my sister's *name*. I can't remember the names of the students that have gone missing either. I only know that they have, and I'm the only one who had seemed to notice. Somehow, any record of them I had before all this had gone missing. I'd look over a student roster and half of it is unreadable."

Gretchen held the sobbing girl in her arms, mentally connecting the dots. This sounded similar to the amnesia she'd had regarding her squadmates. She could remember being in a squad, but the only squadmate she could remember clearly was one whose Soul Gem shattered. A victory celebration was cut short when Eliah was found collapsed. A knife that looked identical to the ones Caroline threw was on the ground. Everything else faded into the fog of her mind. Now she had a theory.

"We were eventually separated once. I was 20. With nary a thought in my mind, I entered the service and apprenticeship of the one I've always considered my master." Faust focused her mind but nothing came up. "I can't remember her name or her face either. But I can remember a few things she said."

"Do you remember any specifics?"

"If ever the devil offers you a miracle..."

"...re-evaluate your life", Gretchen finished the sentence. "So that's where you got that phrase from. Makes a lot more sense if your master was a Magical Girl."

"It's the last thing I remember about her. After that, I saw Caroline again. She offered to become my housekeeper in exchange for food and board, and that cursed light shone, and I could not resist." Faust shivered. "That was 40 years ago, I believe. At some point, she bade I open that school. If what she said is true... I... fed so many..."

"You didn't do that. She did that. She manipulated you for decades. And for what, an easy source of Grief Seeds?" Gretchen tried to reassure her companion. "We have a Witch to fight. After the hunt, please?"

Faust nodded her head, sobbing. The duo walked down the boardwalk to the broken pier into the depths of the old Witch's Labyrinth.


End file.
